The Miracle Of Castel Di Sangro [Paperback]

The first season spent in the dizzy heights of Serie B, in their entire history, by Castel Di Sangro is shared by American writer Joe McGinniss in this fascinating book.

McGinniss spends the entire 1996/97 season in the small hamlet of Castel Di Sangro. It's calcio (football to you and me, maybe soccer to the author) club is at the very heart of this remarkable tale of survival. The author gets so close to the team though that the book is about far more than football. Lies, deception, scandal and tragedy all come to the fore whilst the footballing miracle unfolds.

In fact, so much unfolds between September 1996 and May 1997, that you will not want to do anything else but read on. The book, by and large, seems to be written with the American audience in mind, which in actual fact helps the tale have small respites for avid football followers. The season is described chronologically, which again makes the story very readable.

The only negative is that the author, despite by his own admission being new to the sport, seems to consider himself an expert in the game. Frequently he describes how he told the manager to do this or that, and seems genuinely surprised when the experienced Italian coach rebuffs his ideas.

Overall, a fascinating tale of an almost surreal season for Castel Di Sangro. Joe McGinniss is welcomed so much into the heart of the community and club, that we find out a great deal about the activities of a small Italian football club, in this intelligently written story.

This is a fantastic read and literally has you sat on the edge of your seat trying to guess what will happen next. The first season of lowly Castel Di Sangro in Serie B of the Italian football league is a roller coaster ride and ends with a fantastic twist. The reviews of each league game are brilliantly written and really do have you screaming for the final whistle and a win for Castel.

The book goes into slightly too much detail about the basics of football at times but this obviously increases its target audience to those who don't know too much about the game. It really is a great read and a fascinating true story. The only blemish is the author who clearly knows little about European football and the passion which surrounds it. It is almost embarrassing at times to listen to his opinions and points of view as he is very often misguided and uninformed. Saying that, it adds a bit extra to the story as you get sucked into the politics and passion of Italian football.

Sports stories don't come much better than Castel Di Sangro. The plucky underdog wins promotion against the odds and takes on the big boys of Italy's second division. Throw in the backdrop of a quirky Italian provincial town, financial mis-management, corruption, some truly crazy publicity stunts, drug deals and love, sex and death and you have a heck of a tale. One can only imagine what Buzz Bissinger, John Feinstein or Michael Lewis would have molded from such rich source material.

McGinniss manages to tell the tale well enough (who could fail), but he mucks the whole thing up by sticking his own big dumb self into the middle of the story. He begins by ignoring all the advice and guidance he is offered and as a result acts like the archetypal stupid yanks abroad - not only does he disregard local manners and protocols but he proudly goes out of his way to do exactly the opposite of what he is asked. Against all advice he books himself into a local flophouse and then whines about how horrible it is, acts like a naive child when invited to sit with the clubs directors and generally makes a fool of himself. Worse still - despite having an incredibly limited experience of football he fools himself into thinking that he is an expert and offers up advice to the club's manager and posts cringing critiques of the clubs owners throughout the town. He even becomes directly involved in an effort to transfer one of the clubs players to the US. He excuses the shockingly rude behavior by shrugging it off as the result of some sort of football fever. Such a pathetic excuse would sound lame from a child, from a well traveled and experienced author it beggars belief. McGinniss ends the story by throwing a massive stop and marching off into the distance having betrayed everyone whose hospitality and patience he has taken advantage of. The long suffering residents of Castel de Sangro must have been glad to see the back of him. They deserved better. A better writer may well have also exposed their warts and shortcomings, but would have probably avoided acting like such a clown while doing so.

The story was compelling, McGinniss's writing was good and kept me reading but his behavior was just awful and by celebrating it the book he ruins a great tale.